Large patient anatomies and limited imaging field-of-view (FOV) may lead to truncation of computed tomography (CT) projections. Truncation introduces serious artifacts into reconstructed images, including central cupping and bright external rings. FOV may be increased using laterally offset detectors, but this requires sophisticated imaging hardware and full angular scanning. When linear particle accelerators (LINACs) equipped with mini-multileaf collimators (MLCs) are used for mega-voltage cone beam CT imaging, truncation is inevitable.
Due to limited flat-panel detector size, constraints of mechanical motion, and large patient sizes, projection truncation artifacts in cone beam CT (CBCT) present a unique challenge for applications in multiple clinical domains. Even with the employment of brute force approaches, such as the use of lateral offset detectors and full angular scanning, practical trade-offs exist with respect to acquisition time and computational burden. Furthermore, in more specific domains, such as radiotherapy (RT), there exist compromises when mechanical collimation is dictated by the interventional system, and such constraints are of serious clinical importance. An example is megavoltage CBCT for precise stereotactic RT, where image guidance is provided through a tertiary rectangular mini-MLC placed close to a patient. Such an arrangement yields an optimal geometry for the production of a small beam aperture and tight penumbra.
It is often difficult to reconstruct an image of an object from truncated projections. However, various techniques have been suggested to minimize the effect of truncation artifacts and generate approximate solutions. Typical solutions include: 1) modifying projections to conform to a consistency condition derived from non-truncated projections or 2) smoothing truncated edges without consideration of any consistency conditions.
A typical example of the first type of solutions includes a methodology where projections are rebinned into parallel projections. Such a method assumes that at least one of the projections is not truncated. The sum of all rays along the untruncated parallel projection is calculated. All truncated projections are then extended with projections of water cylinders at the truncated edges so that total attenuation of a modified projection matches this sum. Another example of the first type of solutions uses prior CT information to complete CBCT data. There are also several solutions available for exact region-of-interest (ROI) reconstruction in truncated data conditions, using techniques such as backprojection filtration. Such solutions may be computationally intensive and/or difficult to employ in practice. They may also be restricted in terms of the sampling geometries for which they are appropriate.
Solutions in the second category involve techniques such as extrapolation methods based on fitting elliptical boundary segments or using symmetric mirroring and smoothing of the projection data beyond the truncated region. While these methods are arguably more practical than the consistency-condition solutions, the results tend to be imprecise.